Meeting the Locals at the UiB Introductory Programme

Yesterday I had the good fortune to re-attend one of my favorite Introductory Programme presentations, “Meeting the Locals”. I would have also liked to have attended “Understanding Norway: a Historical Perspective”, but I had class. If anybody went and cares to comment on it (below), I would love to know what you learned!

There was far too much great information in “Meeting the Locals” to share all of it below, if I missed any of your favorite parts, please leave a comment.

Norwegians are outdoors-people, no matter the weather: My favorite Norwegian quote (so far) was highlighted in this presentation, “There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing”. I have certainly seen Norwegians out and running up mountains in all types of weather.

Photo: Stand Hiestand

Pizza: Apparently Norwegians eat 1 pizza every second, the boxes of which, one presenter noted, “would stretch from Oslo to Rome six times”. I didn’t know that Norwegians were such huge frozen pizza fans, but it explains my favorite Grandiosa Pizza commercial I found online when I was googling all things Norwegian after I was accepted into my programme here.

Drinking Culture: This in not necessarily a proud tradition, and the presenters emphasized that they are not encouraging drinking, but they note that Norwegians are known for weekend binge drinking. They also point out that Norwegians are trying to create methods to address the drinking culture. They passed out “optimal buzz” cards as a way to highlight safer drinking practices. Or as I like to say, “The art of the buzz, guys, the art of the buzz”. (For more information about binge and moderate drinking, you can look here).

Photos: Stand Hiestand

I’ll leave you with this video shared in “Meeting the Locals”; it highlights the Norwegian love of potatoes, among other things: This is Norway.